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Description:
Is there a hidden developmental connection between Hasidic doctrine and psychoanalytic theory? Mystical Psychoanalysis presents and examines the hypothesis that psychoanalysis extracted, developed and enriched essential ideas of Jewish mysticism as manifested in Hasidism, while neutralizing and disguising their mystical aspects.

The book Mystical Psychoanalysis offers the term metaphysical unconscious as a fundamental concept that expands and stretches the basic psychoanalytic principle towards the metaphysical dimension. The psychoanalytic unconscious mechanism engages with the interpretation of emotional content and impulses as well as controls the exposure towards them. Similarly, the metaphysical unconscious deals with the interpretation of the human-divine relationship and the degree of exposure to it. One organizes our mental conduct and the other guides our spiritual life in levels that are not exposed to us.

The vision that motivates this book is expanding the foundations for the restoration of mysticism to the psychoanalytic unconscious concept from which it has been excluded. This vision is a pillar of the socio-cultural view that has gained momentum in recent years: applying the ideas of Hasidism to all the areas of life from which it began to grow, by combining social, mental and spiritual aspects into a unified perception of man and world. Expanding the meanings of the concept of The Unconscious to the metaphysical realm may also affect the boundaries of the psychoanalytic therapeutic method. Mystical Psychoanalysis offers the option to interpret unconscious spiritual aspects from a clinical point of view, and as a result diagnose and differentiate accordingly between hallucination and intuition, fantasy and belief, madness and sanity, illness and health.

Dr. Shmuel Weinstein's book Mystical Psychoanalysis is based on a knowledgeable and sensitive integration of Kabbalah and Hasidic research with the extensive psychoanalytic literature. It is conceptually meticulous and articulated and demonstrates exceptional analytical and expressive abilities. Without any doubt, this is a very important research achievement. - Prof. Moshe Idel

Dr. Shmuel Weinstein is a clinical psychologist, engaged in psychotherapy and clinical supervision and has lectured at various academic institutions. For the past decade, he has been leading the program The Mystical Narrative: Reparation of the Soul according to Hasidism within the Chair of Hasidic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, intended for psychotherapists who wish to combine their clinical work with the Hasidic theory of the soul.

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